Chapter 14: Practicing Quiet Sitting Requires Commitment and Perseverance

¹ The Chinese know the most about cultivating the Dao and refining an inner elixir. There has been quiet sitting in China since the Yellow Emperor learned the Dao from Guangchengzi. This advanced method of uplifting human life is a practice unique to the Chinese people.

¹ 中國人最懂得修道煉丹。從黃帝問道於廣成子之前就有打坐，因此，靜坐修煉為中土人類特有的人生最高修養方法。

² When I was on Mount Hua I once asked the Cloud Dragon the Saint^[54] if there were any foreigners among the earth immortals of Mount Kunlun. He told me there were only two. One from India and one from Greece.

² 我在華山時曾請問過雲龍至聖崑崙山上的地仙有無外國人？衪告訴我有一位印度人、一位希臘人，只有兩位。

³ Contemporary civilization, which is now referred to as the Western European civilization, puts a relative emphasis on science. It does not understand the cultivation of one’s own nature and physical body.

³ 近代文明也就是所謂西歐文明，比較注重科學，講修身養性他們不懂。

⁴ As I have taught in the past, quiet sitting is, in essence, basic common sense. The overall principle is the dual cultivation of one’s self-nature and physical body.

⁴ 過去在靜坐班所講的不外乎靜坐的基本常識。總原則是性命雙修。

⁵ The three steps of cultivation are:
1) Refining jing into qi
2) Refining qi into shen
3) efining shen back to emptiness

⁵ 修煉的三種步驟為:
①煉精化氣
②煉氣化神
③煉神還虛

⁶ Everyone of us, male or female, grows from youth to maturity, and inevitably has sexual desires. This is part of being alive, since the smallest constituents of our bodies are yin and yang etropons.^[55]

⁶ 我們每個人無論男女，身體發育成熟，必然有性慾。這是與生俱來的，因為我們人的身體構成份子有陰性、陽性之陰電子、陽電子。

⁷ As Yijing [aka I Ching or the Book of Changes] stated, “Yin and yang together are the Dao.” The Dao is right here within us. In ancient times, it was also said that “eating, drinking, and finding a mate are basic and top among human desires.”

⁷ 所謂「一陰一陽之謂道」，道就在本身。古人云：「飲食男女，人之大欲」。

⁸ Sexual desire arises because there is yin and yang in the body. Yang needs yin and yin needs yang. Only when yin and yang are mutually adapted can the mind-body be in balance. So, marriage between a man and a woman is part of the very fabric of life.

⁸ 這性慾的產生就是因身體內有陰陽，陽需要陰，陰需要陽，陰陽相互調和，身心才能平衡。因此男婚女嫁，便成了天經地義的事了。

⁹ All of you know that even the Buddha Sakyamuni, Confucius, Saintly Emperor Guan^[56] and the Daoist patriarch Lü Chunyang had wives and children. Not even they were able to get around this hurdle.

⁹ 各位知道釋迦牟尼佛、孔老夫子、關聖帝君、呂純陽祖師等都有妻兒，他們都無法逃過這一關。

¹⁰ As for the immortals, saints, and perfected beings in heaven, many of them had wives and bore children while they were mortals. This happened because of natural bonds that form between people.

¹⁰ 而在天上的仙佛聖真，在人世娶妻生子的太多了。這個原因就是人倫所使然。

¹¹ But, there are also some cultivators of the Dao who reverse this and willingly preserve their primal energy for a lifetime on Earth. There is also abstinence for religious reasons, such as the celibacy of Catholic nuns and priests. They devote their whole lives to God, while the Church takes special care of them. The same is true of monks and nuns in Buddhism.

¹¹ 但是，地球上也有反其道而行，自願終生守真葆元的修道人，以及禁慾的宗教，如天主教修女、神父不結婚。他們終身為天主奉獻，但會受到教會特別的照顧；佛教有尼姑、和尚也是一樣。

¹² Most cultivators of the Dao cannot help being influenced by worldly thoughts. There is no way around this. We should know that cultivating the Dao is easy, but cultivating perfection is hard.

¹² 一般修道人免不了要動凡心，這是沒有辦法的事。我們應知道修道容易，修真難。

¹³ What is cultivating perfection? It is perfecting one’s “primal energy,” which consists of the “primal jing,” “primal qi” and “primal shen” one receives at birth.

¹³ 修真是什麼？是修「真元」，就是由母親生我們時帶來的「元精」、「元氣」、「元神」三元。

¹⁴ After we come of age and marry, our bodies are compromised, and the three primals will gradually be consumed. By a certain age, they are completely gone. Thus “cultivating perfection” is keeping one’s primal energy.

¹⁴ 我們成年結婚後就破體了，三元就會慢慢消耗，到達某一年齡會完全沒有了。所以「修真」是保留真元。

¹⁵ And what is the way to keep it? Only by quiet sitting. When we quiet-sit, we are working to lay the foundation.

¹⁵ 你用什麼方法來保留呢？祇有靜坐修煉。我們打坐即是在修煉築基功夫。

¹⁶ Transmutation of “jing” into qi, according to some people, is refining our “worldly jing” into qi. Once this jing is transformed to qi, it will no longer act disruptively. When it does not act disruptively, sexual desires will no longer overwhelm us or impulse us.

¹⁶ 所謂煉「精」化氣，有人說，就是把這「凡精」化煉成氣，化氣之後這精就不會作怪了。不作怪，性慾便不會衝動。

¹⁷ Actually, this “jing” being refined is our “innate primal jing.” It is cultivated in single-minded quietude, before any desires and worldly thoughts arise, so that true fire can temper the acquired material of “yin jing” into qi.

¹⁷ 其實，這「精」指的是先天「元精」。在未生性慾未動凡心，一心清靜而修而煉，真火把後天「陰精」質料鍛煉成氣。

¹⁸ But tell me, if your worldly thoughts are stirring, and your yin jing is strewn like refuse, how are you going to refine it?

¹⁸ 試問一動凡心陰精變成一堆廢料，如何修煉？

¹⁹ Whether it is innate or acquired primal jing or yin jing, as it reaches its ultimate state, it will pass through dynamic processes and become qi naturally, which is your true yin (true water) and your true yang (true fire).

¹⁹ 不分先天後天、元精陰精，只要達到極致，一經運化，自然成氣。亦即自身之真陰(真水)、真陽(真火)。

²⁰ Graft from within yourself. There is no need to resort to yin and yang from outside of your body. Use your own true water and true fire to harmonize the body.

²⁰ 自己去栽接，不須假借身外之陰陽，自己的真水真火自己去調和。

²¹ With perseverance and hard work, you can complete the second stage of practice, the refining of qi into shen.

²¹ 如繼續下苦功，即可完成第二步煉氣化神的功夫。

²² Only at the third stage, when shen is refined back to emptiness and the true self emerges can you become a golden immortal of the Daluo Heaven, and return to God’s side.

²² 及到了第三步煉神還虛真我出現，你才能成為大羅金仙，回到　上帝左右。

²³ Once your practice deepens to where your body’s true yin can blend with its own true yang, your sexual desires will subside.

²³ 因此等你的功夫深了，到了本身的真陰真陽能自相調和，這時情欲就會減低。

²⁴ This achievement of practice accumulates by small degrees. You cannot vault to the heights in one day or overnight.

²⁴ 功夫是點點滴滴累積而成，不是一朝一夕可蹴。

²⁵ By what indication do we know that the refining of jing to qi has been completed?

²⁵ 煉精化氣要到什麼程度才算完成？

²⁶ In males, it is when “the horse’s privates are gone from sight.” That is, the testicles in the scrotum retract into the body (the testicles ascend completely). In females, it is marked by “severing the crimson dragon,” when menstruation comes to a complete stop.

²⁶ 男的至「馬陰藏相」，就是生殖器包括睪丸全部都縮進去(全部上去)。女的至「斬赤龍」，月經停止。

²⁷ Only by occurrence of these phenomena can we know the process of refining jing into qi is complete. But yielding to worldly thoughts at this time will reduce us to the being we were before. That is why “cultivating perfection” is no easy matter.

²⁷ 有了此種現象產生才算完成煉精化氣的過程。但此時如再動凡心，馬上又恢復原來，所以「修真」談何容易。

²⁸ Cultivating the Dao demands that we invest arduous effort. The thing to guard against is a zealous beginning and an indifferent end.

²⁸ 修道須要下苦功，最忌始勤終怠。

²⁹ Down through the ages a great many people have resolved to cultivate the Dao. They have climbed mountains and forded streams, roaming to the four quarters in search of enlightened masters.

²⁹ 過去歷代肯發心修道的人太多了，跋山涉水、雲遊四方尋訪明師。

³⁰ A seeker possessing virtues in his person and from his ancestors might meet one or two advanced recluses and learn a key to mastery from them, but this would depend on his own hard effort in cultivation.

³⁰ 因為祖上及他自己有德性碰到一、兩位高人，聽了一點口訣，也要他自己下苦功修煉。

³¹ At the beginning many people set aims that are unrealistically high. They see through everything and wish to cultivate the Dao, but only a few of them can bear up for two or three years. Most are unwilling to put in hard effort and they give up halfway.

³¹ 有許多人最初立志高得不得了，什麼都看透了要去修道。能熬到兩、三年的太少。大都不肯下苦功，中途而廢。

³² Thus down through the ages “seekers of the Dao come by the cartloads, but achievers of the Dao are like phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.”

³² 所以歷代「修道者車載斗量，得道者鳳毛麟角」。

³³ Attaining the Dao and immortality is something most contemporary people have been unable to do and, therefore, consider them to be superstitions.

³³ 成道、成仙、現代一般人沒看到，認為是迷信。

³⁴ However, in our personal cultivation, we hope at least to achieve the following:

1) Lesser stage (with minor accomplishment): Ward off illness and extend our lifespan.
2) Middle stage (with moderate accomplishment): Regain youthful vigor. For those who are physically- compromised [non-virgins], return to the pure yang body of chaste youth.
3) Greater stage (with superior accomplishment): Transcend the mundane and enter the sacred.

³⁴ 最起碼按我們各人的修煉，希望能達到：

①下乘－小者：袪病延年。
②中乘－中者：返老還童，破體之人發心修煉，重返童貞純陽之體。
③上乘－上者：超凡入聖。

³⁵ A person who keeps his chaste body of pure yang into his twenties, by dint of diligent practice, can accomplish more in three years than a middle-aged, physically compromised person can in ten years of bitter effort. This is a true statement, but it is not an easy thing.

³⁵ 二十多歲仍保童貞純陽之體，若能勤修苦煉，三年即能大成，遠勝過中年破體之人十年苦煉。這不是假的，只是很難。

³⁶ In this time of rampant human desires we easily fall prey to material temptations. We, naturally, give in to “eating, drinking, and mating as they are basic and top among human desires.”

³⁶ 在這人慾滔天、物質引誘力量太大，「飲食男女、人之大欲」是很自然的。

³⁷ Down through the ages only those who resolve to cultivate the Dao can discipline themselves to forgo marriage and sexual relationships. This is a rare thing and is not easily done.

³⁷ 不婚嫁、不發生性行為，千古以來，惟有志修道者始能勉強克制。真是難得，真是不容易。

³⁸ Look at the past. The saints who founded the five major religions were all touched by carnality at one time. But each of them transformed his acquired, mortal existence into something higher.

³⁸ 想當年，五教聖人大都是破體人，均是後天凡夫修成。

³⁹ Confucius, founder of Confucianism, was once married. Though he did not practice quiet sitting, he possessed brilliance and right- mindedness. His aspiration was to save the world. His teachings run through all ages. His virtues match heaven and earth. Naturally he would become a deity after death.

³⁹ 儒家教主－孔子：結過婚。雖不修道，但其生前聰明正直，志存救世。道貫古今，德配天地，死後當然為神。

⁴⁰ Sakyamuni, founder of Buddhism, was once married and was sexually compromised. But his vision penetrated the ways of the world. By hard cultivation in the snowy mountains he attained the Dao and saw deeply into his original nature. He then returned home and converted his only son, Rahula, who served as his disciple and eventually became a bodhisattva.

⁴⁰ 佛教教主－釋迦牟尼，結過婚，已經破體。看破世情，雪山苦修得道。明心見性後，回家度其獨子羅睺羅為隨從，最後也成菩薩。

⁴¹ The founder of Daoism was Laozi, of whom Confucius asked: “This Laozi, is he not like a dragon?” There is no way to verify the name, age, birthplace, or family background of this venerable sage. In the end he went westward to the land of shifting sands (in Xinjiang Province), and no one knew what became of him.

⁴¹ 道教教主－老子。孔子言：「老子其猶龍乎？」他老人家姓名、年齡、出身、家庭背景都無法查考；最後，他西出流沙(新疆)，不知所終。

⁴² Mohammed, the founder of Islam, was once married also. He attained the Dao in deep mountains and was given a mandate by Allah to save the world. He is the savior of the Arabic people.

⁴² 回教教主－穆罕默德也結過婚。在深山得道，奉真主受命救世，為阿拉伯民族的救星！

⁴³ In sum, a single change of thought can mark the transformation from common mortality to sainthood, sageliness, perfection, and Buddhahood. It all lies in firmness of aspiration to the Dao, in the steadfastness of one’s practice and commitment to helping oneself and others.

⁴³ 總之，凡夫一念之轉為聖為賢、成真成佛，全在道心堅定，修煉矢勤不怠，誓願自度度人而已。