“Golden Elixir is another name for xing and ming” – Liu Yiming
For those who haven’t seen it, there’s a very comprehensive essay on ming-xing written by Fabrizio Pregadio available here:
http://www.fabriziopregadio.com/files/PREGADIO_Destiny_Vital_Force_or_Existence.pdf
I recommend it as an addition to the recent Dao Bums topic on ming-xing cultivation here. It clarifies key concepts and gives historical context to that whole discussion.
I’ve started it as a new topic because of the central place ming-xing cultivation occupies in Neidan. For me though, my actual experiences arising from my life and my practice (these are not two) must always be primary. Theory such as this gives language and lineage context for those experiences – and it’s massively helpful on many levels, for sure – but once past beginning stages, I've found it unhelpful to try to emulate the theory rather than allowing my own path to unfold as it will, self-so. In other words, what interests me is my own experience of the illusive inner reality that this theory tries to explain.
I can feel my path leading me somewhere, but where it’s leading is an ever-unfolding mystery. The later sections of Pregadio’s essay have given me some insight into what I'm beginning to feel with his discussion of true and false xing and ming.
Comments welcome but please read this essay properly first!
It’s a popular way for sure. But different paths work differently - and Daoism is one of the more methodical ones.
Yes - exactly. It’s a two way street. And ‘correct’ depends upon a lineage. There are different ‘corrects’.
To achieve sagehood, a teacher isn’t required - it can be attained with a method alone (and a lot of luck, discipline and natural talent of course)... The DDJ is a method to become a shengren for example.
But to go deeper, to the various stages of immortality for instance, a teacher is required because you need a living lineage connection.
Yeah. Sadly true. The rampant assimilation and homogenisation is sadly killing off any real growth of the spiritual arts.
And we get shit like ‘Yoqi - combining the best of the ancient practices to improve your sex life in jus 8 minutes a day’.
So teachers fall under the spell of ‘we understand things better now’ and so we optimise, simplify, combine, reinterpret, hack, assimilate, scientifically validate, modernise, improve...
