115. Cultivating the Dao Is Easy, Cultivating Perfection Is Hard

¹ 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.

¹ 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。

² 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.

² 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。

³ 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.

³ 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。

⁴ And what is the way to keep it? Only by quiet sitting.

⁴ 你用什麼方法來保留呢？祇有靜坐修煉一途。

⁵ The essence we extract from consuming grains, meats, fruits and vegetables is what we call the worldly jing. 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.

⁵ 人吃的五穀雜糧、肉類、果蔬所吸收的精華即為凡精。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，性慾便不會衝動了。

⁶ Actually, this “jing” being refined is our “innate primal jing.” True yang (true fire) and true yin (true water) are cultivated in single-minded quietude, before any desires and worldly thoughts arise. The innate primal jing can be tempered into qi by applying the true fire and true water.

⁶ 其實，這「精」指的是先天的「元精」。人在未生性慾未動凡心一心清靜時產生了真陽(真火)、真陰(真水)。藉此真火、真水將元精鍛煉成氣。

⁷ But tell me, if your worldly thoughts are stirring, and your worldly jing is strewn like refuse, how are you going to refine it?

⁷ 試問一動凡心，凡精就變成一堆廢料，該如何修煉？

⁸ The human body’s innate primal jing also contains the qualities of the worldly jing. Therefore, whether the primal jing is innate or acquired, as it reaches its ultimate state, it will pass through dynamic processes and become qi naturally.

⁸ 人體中的元精也包含了凡精的素質，因此不分先天後天，只要靜到極致，一經運化，元精自然鍛煉成氣。

⁹ You can graft from within yourself. There is no need to resort to yin or yang from outside of your body. Use your own true water and true fire to harmonize the body.

⁹ 完全可以自己栽接，不須假借身外之陰陽，用自己的真水、真火去調和。

¹⁰ With perseverance and hard work, you can complete the second stage of practice, that is, the refining of qi into shen.

¹⁰ 如繼續下苦功，即可完成第二步煉氣化神的功夫。

¹¹ 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 the God’s side.

¹¹ 及至第三步煉神還虛真我出現時，你才能成為大羅金仙，回到　上帝左右。

¹² Once your practice deepens to where your body’s true yin can blend with its true yang, your sexual desires will subside.

¹² 等你的功夫深了，本身的真陰真陽能自相調和，這時情慾就會減低。

¹³ This achievement of practice accumulates by small degrees. You cannot vault to the heights in one day or overnight.

¹³ 功夫是點點滴滴累積而成的，不是一朝一夕一蹴可就的。

A fellowship meeting at Tianji Traveling Palace, November 12, 1984

天極行宮親和集會－民國七十三年十一月十二日