100. The Inner Refining of Jing, Qi, and Shen

¹ The inner refining of jing, qi, and shen: The first stage is to refine jing into qi. That is to keep the acquired jing from leaking and reversing its direction, so it would go upwards [to temper jing into qi.]

¹ 內煉「精」、「氣」、「神」的第一階段是要煉精化氣，就是使後天的精不走漏，使它逆行回到上面。

² Humans consume the five grains,^[18] and a variety of foods and beverages, but in the end, these things change to yin jing. The yin jing of the body is not true jing. However, true fire^[19] causes transformation to Qi, and in the process, our yin jing is smelted and made pure. Our acquired jing, qi, and shen are thus refined. Their movement is reversed, and finally, they return to their origin, becoming true jing, true qi, and true shen. These are the primal jing, qi, and shen, which are innate to us.

² 人吃五穀飲食的結果，都變成陰精。這「精」是陰精，不是真精。我們經過真火煉化，把陰精燒煉盡淨，使後天的精氣神經過修煉而逆行，最後使它返本還原成為真精、真氣、真神，也就是先天帶來的元精、元氣、元神。

³ Jing, qi, and shen cannot be seen in the body, and they are hard to define. Compared to the physical side of the universe, jing can be likened to the heat of the living body; qi can be likened to force, and shen can be likened to light.

³ 「精」、「氣」、「神」在人身是看不到的，也很難下明確的定義。可拿宇宙物理學來做比方：「精」就是人體生命的熱，「氣」就是力，「神」就是光。

⁴ The composition of bodily jing is neither light nor dark, and is partly yin and partly yang. Innate Qi is neither the qi that makes up the atmosphere, nor is it the qi we breathe. “Qi is the ultra-yang energy flow that is produced when high-level etropic substance from harmonons combines with bodies of static etropicity.”^[20] The upper part of the [Chinese] character is 旡 [pronounced wu], meaning nonbeing, and the four dots below symbolize fire. We can characterize such Qi as the innate Qi.

⁴ 「精」的成分為非白非青、半陰半陽之質。「炁」不是大空之氣，也不是口、鼻、肺部、胸腔呼吸之氣。「氣為和子中一種高等電質與靜電軀體交流後所發生之至陽熱流」。這「至陽熱流」就是上面一個無（旡）字，下面四點是火，這「炁」可說是先天之氣。

⁵ There are locations in the body where the three treasures of jing, qi, and shen are matched with bodily functions. Jing is in the area of the kidneys, qi is in the area of the chest cavity, and shen is in the head.

⁵ 再來談精氣神三寶在身體的那些部位。拿生理來配合，「精」在腎臟的部位，「氣」在胸腔的部門，「神」在頭部。

Spiritual Talk about the Practice of Chinese Original Quiet Sitting, August 5, 1979

中國正宗靜坐傳習精神講話－民國六十八年八月五日