The Seal of the Unity of the Three - The Golden Elixir

16 Notes
—————————————————————————————————————————
essences, and the ten thousand things are born by transformation” (B.4;
see Wilhelm, 342–43).
18. Nourishing inner nature
This is the first of ten sections (18–27) that illustrate the main features
of “superior virtue” (shangde) and “inferior virtue” (xiade). The
import of these chapters is made clear in sections 20–21: superior
virtue is the way of non-doing (wuwei), and consists in the cultivation
of inner nature (xing); inferior virtue is the way of doing (youwei),
and focuses on the cultivation of one’s existence (or “vital force,”
ming) by means of practices such as the alchemical ones.
The subject of sections 18–19 is the principles of superior virtue.
Emptiness is the fundament from which all things arise and to which
they return; quiescence is the state required to contemplate Emptiness.
The first stanza expresses these principles with allusions to an exemplary
passage of the Daode jing: “Attain the ultimate of emptiness,
guard the utmost of quiescence. The ten thousand things are brought
about together: accordingly, I observe their return. . . . Returning to
the root means quiescence; being quiescent means reverting to one’s
destiny; reverting to one’s destiny means being constant; knowing the
constant means being luminous” (Daode jing, 6). The subjects of the
present section of the Cantong qi are the same as those of this
passage: Emptiness, the return to the root, and the luminous quality
of those who achieve quiescence.
Attaining the state of Emptiness requires closing the “openings”
through which we deal with the world of multiplicity. This principle,
and its formulation, also originate in the Daode jing: “Shut the
openings, close the gates, and to the end of your life you will not toil.
Unlock the openings, meddle with affairs, and to the end of your life
you will not attain salvation” (Daode jing, 52).
For the Cantong qi, the openings are the “three luminaries”: the
eyes, the ears, and the mouth, or the functions of sight, hearing, and
speech. When the “three luminaries” do not turn their light toward
the external world, they “sink into the ground.” This expression,
which derives from the Zhuangzi, denotes the attitude of the saintly
man who conceals his sainthood (see the note to verse 7). Established
in quiescence, he does not turn himself toward the external objects,
allowing the radiance of the luminaries to illuminate and nourish his
www.goldenelixir.com/press/trl_02_ctq.html