The practice of Neidan(內丹)

[ChiDragon]

I have been hearing that lot of newcomers that they have practicing or practiced Neidan. It just dawned on me with curiosity.  How people do their practice or what they think that is? I would to hear their comments before I introduce the original Taoist method of Neidan. I mean in the Chinese version with the help of AI.  I have been using Gemini AI which gives me a very good explanation in the Chinese language. However, one may tell it in any way just for the purpose of comparison only.  Thanks!

[Nintendao]

Set a timer for two minutes. Close your eyes and observe your internal environment with as many of your senses as you can. Just look and be attentive. Train your energy to pool inwards instead of disperse outwards. The outside can wait. The timer will let you know when to wrap up. Practice at least once every day. Increase the amount of time when you want to. Keep track of your progress on any kind of calendar or journal that suits you.

 

That's it. That's the practice.

 

But Nintendao, all you've described is a most basic form of meditation. Don't you have to kan li your yuan qi to xing ming the xuan guan?

 

Yes. Yes you do.

[Antares]

On 09.12.2025 at 3:55 AM, ChiDragon said:

I would to hear their comments before I introduce the original Taoist method of Neidan. I mean in the Chinese version with the help of AI.  I have been using Gemini AI which gives me a very good explanation in the Chinese language

With the use of AI you can reach the AI (artificial immortality). I have not heard someone has achieved it but who knows may be you will be the first one in history who will achieve it. 

[EFreethought]

5 hours ago, Nintendao said:

Set a timer for two minutes. Close your eyes and observe your internal environment with as many of your senses as you can. Just look and be attentive. Train your energy to pool inwards instead of disperse outwards. The outside can wait. The timer will let you know when to wrap up. Practice at least once every day. Increase the amount of time when you want to. Keep track of your progress on any kind of calendar or journal that suits you.

 

That's it. That's the practice.

 

But Nintendao, all you've described is a most basic form of meditation. Don't you have to kan li your yuan qi to xing ming the xuan guan?

 

Yes. Yes you do.

How does this compare to a body scan?

 

And can body scan be a form of neidan?

 

[DynamicEquilibrium]

12 hours ago, Antares said:

With the use of AI you can reach the AI (artificial immortality). I have not heard someone has achieved it but who knows may be you will be the first one in history who will achieve it. 

In a honest world: 

"Q: Who is your teacher ? 

 A: The chinese internet."

 

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

16 hours ago, Antares said:

With the use of AI you can reach the AI (artificial immortality). I have not heard someone has achieved it but who knows may be you will be the first one in history who will achieve it. 

SifuGPT

[Nintendao]

11 hours ago, EFreethought said:

How does this compare to a body scan?

 

And can body scan be a form of neidan?

 

 

As long as the scan is taking into account which direction attention is moving. Either pooling (☵ 坎) or dispersing (☲ 離). What the training does is to be able to discern the difference, as well as develop a propensity toward pooling. The timer and journal are also important.

 

[ChiDragon]

内丹术修炼概述
内丹术是中国道教的核心修炼方法之一，其目标是通过特殊的炼养方法，在人体内部**（内）炼成一个超越凡俗的丹体或丹药，以实现长生久视**（长寿和健康）乃至羽化登仙。
内丹修炼遵循“炼精化气、炼气化神、炼神还虚”这三个基本过程，简称“三步功法”。

AI have gathered and compiled the Chinese explanation of Neidan with crystal clear beyond any doubt. It is the best intellectual master piece I have ever encountered.  There will be more coming. I will do my best to translate them.

[ChiDragon]

 「煉精」的要義（煉精化氣）：
目的： 內丹術的核心之一，就是阻止後天之精的洩漏和消耗，並通過特殊的功法（如調息、採藥）將其逆轉、提煉，重新轉化為純淨的元氣，以補足生命之本。
地點： 主要在下丹田（臍下三寸，氣海穴附近）。
結果： 「精滿不思淫」，生命力得到鞏固，為下一步的煉氣打下堅實的「築基」基礎。

 

煉精化氣：築基固本工程
「煉精化氣」是內丹術三步功法中的第一步，其核心目的在於將人體的**「精」（生命物質基礎）提煉轉化為「氣」（生命活動動力），從而築基固本**，恢復和鞏固生命原有的活力。

 

一、 階段目標與意義
1. 補足虧損，恢復元氣
常人隨著年齡增長和慾望消耗，體內的先天之精（元精）不斷損耗。此階段的目標就是通過煉化後天之精（水穀精微、生殖之精）和其他精微物質，使其逆轉而生，補足先天的虧損。這如同給枯竭的油燈重新添油。

Edited Thursday at 11:00 PM by ChiDragon

[ChiDragon]

1. 氣的分類與位置：
先天之氣（元氣）：
定義： 由先天之精轉化而來，是推動生命機能運作的根本動力。它彌漫全身，是維持生命活動的總能量。
特性： 這是內丹術在**「煉精化氣」**階段所採集和聚合的寶貴能量

[ChiDragon]

後天之氣：
定義： 呼吸之氣（清氣）和水穀之氣（谷氣）的混合，日常所說的「力氣」多屬此類。
特性： 維持日常生理活動，但相對粗糙。

[ChiDragon]

2. 「煉氣」的要義（煉氣化神）：
目的： 將煉精所得的元氣（真氣）進一步聚攏、薰蒸、溫養，並提煉成更細微、更光明的元神能量。

 

Please bear with me, I have to do lots of work for clarification. Even to myself. 

Edited Friday at 10:46 PM by ChiDragon

[ChiDragon]

The Taoist wanted to preserve life for longevity. So, they came up with the idea of Neidan. Neidan is a form of Qigong. The practice involves three basic steps.

1. 練精化气: transform jing into chi

2. 練气化神 transform chi into shen

3. 練神化虚: transform shen into void

 

First of all, what is jing. Jing(元精) is the vital essence that comprised the human body. In modern science, Yuan Jing(元精) may be considered as the body cell. The purpose of Neidan is the preserve the vital essence(cells). It's because the body cells deteriorate and vanish very quickly. Hence, we must preserve it. 

 

The vital essence produces the vital energy to keep the body functional active. The vital energy was known as the prenatal Chi or Yuen Chi(元气). In order to regenerate and maintain the prenatal vital active energy, practicing Neidan will help us to achieve that goal.

 

Edited Friday at 10:36 PM by ChiDragon

[ChiDragon]

25 minutes ago, ChiDragon said:

Neidan is a form of Qigong. The practice involves three basic steps.

1. 練精化气: transform jing into chi

2. 練气化神 transform chi into shen

3. 練神化虚: transform shen into void

 

The first step of Neidan seems it can be only controlled externally by LDT breathing. The 2nd and 3rd step are virtually done internally. They automatically take care themselves is because it is the normal function of the human body. Other words, by performing the Neidan methed shall accomplish the goal of all three steps.  

 

The Neidan method shall be defined next.

[Antares]

12 hours ago, ChiDragon said:

The purpose of Neidan is the preserve the vital essence(cells). It's because the body cells deteriorate and vanish very quickly. Hence, we must preserve it. 

No, AI is telling lie to you. Preserving jing is Yangshengong goal but not Neidan.

 

[Antares]

On 11.12.2025 at 7:28 PM, -ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ- said:

SifuGPT

ChattingTheLieSifuGPT where GPT stands for GovernmentPropagandaTool

Edited 18 hours ago by Antares

[ChiDragon]

5 hours ago, Antares said:

No, AI is telling lie to you. Preserving jing is Yangshengong goal but not Neidan.

 

How do you practice this 陽神功。Please describe. Thanks!

 

AI only collects information but do not make up stories to lie to you.

Edited 13 hours ago by ChiDragon

[Nintendao]

careful..

 

養生 Yǎngshēng is for fitness and nutrition. The yangshenggong mentioned is various life-prolonging exercise.

 

陽神 Yángshén is part of the mobilized light body, e.g. what someone might see floating above your head after you've practiced for ten thousand hours.

 

Edited 7 minutes ago by Nintendao

[ChiDragon]

一、 陽神功的修煉目的
陽神功的目標是將通過「煉精化氣」和「煉氣化神」所凝結成的金丹（聖胎），進一步溫養、提煉，使其完全轉化為純陽無陰的元神，並使其能夠自由出入於肉體，最終合道。
脫胎換體： 將凡胎肉體煉成純陽之體，使元神堅固、圓滿。
出神入化： 元神（陽神）能夠脫離肉體遊行，且**「聚則成形，散則成氣」**，變化無窮，達到神通廣大、超越生死的境界。
煉虛合道： 最終將陽神與宇宙大道（虛空）融合，達到**「天人合一」，「壽齊天地」**的永恆存在。

@Nintendao

What you have mentioned is last step of Neidan. 

[cake1234566]

Ai is a powerful tool, it can definitely help with info gathering as long as you check the original sources and translations of materials
They are however biased towards not saying "I don't know" or "I cant help you with that", which creates an increase in the rate of what are known as hallucinations when dealing with complex topics. It's important to recognize the things that AI is really good at and the things AI is really bad at to use it effectively

You also have to keep in mind the llm's training data influences what it can accurately discuss, while it can talk about the physical sciences to a very advanced degree as it was fed with thousands of textbooks on every topic you can think of regarding them,
the data given about neidan would be extremely small if there were even any neidan texts included in the training data at all

So its more like asking a random person online what they think neidan is, they'd probably google it and tell you the stages and some of the basic popular techniques that are often discussed, which is all the AI assistant is doing

I do think that non-llm ai technology has promise in furthering the understanding of neidan though, only a fraction of the taoist canon has been translated into western languages, ai translations are at least marginally better than the old google translate method as long as you watch out for hallucinations 

 

Fabrizio Pregadio's translations are a pretty good place to start understanding neidan, he's one of the only authors i've come across that understands the coded language (albeit partially)
There are some misunderstandings above like yuan jing isn't cells, it wouldn't even necessarily have a physical counterpart like its post-heaven version but I think its better to direct to the proper resources than discuss everything here at length

[ChiDragon]

3 hours ago, cake1234566 said:

Fabrizio Pregadio's translations are a pretty good place to start understanding neidan, he's one of the only authors i've come across that understands the coded language (albeit partially)
There are some misunderstandings above like yuan jing isn't cells, it wouldn't even necessarily have a physical counterpart like its post-heaven version but I think its better to direct to the proper resources than discuss everything here at length

I think you are bias. Any translation to another language are very questionable. Anyway, the purpose of the OP is not who is right or wrong. It is about what are the similarities. 

Edited 8 hours ago by ChiDragon